Wonderful Tonight
by GoddessofSnark
Summary: Another charity gala. A need for arm candy, hopefully it'll be something like a real date. GarretJordan.


A/N So this is kinda sorta a songfic. Kinda. I mean, the lyrics aren't in here, but you can tell where they'd go if you know the song. So enjoy it folks, it's a nice little Garret/Jordan thing. I don't own them, they belong to Tim Kring and Tailwind. Enjoy. Thanks to garretelliot for beta'ing.

* * *

"Hey." She said, as I appeared at the door to her office.

"Hey." I replied, leaning against the door frame.

"Garret, do NOT dump anything else on me." I smiled faintly at her.

"Big date tonight?" I asked, praying that the answer was no.

"Yeah." I fought to keep the faint smile on my face. "With a wonderful man named Merlot and a nice warm bubble bath." Her grin matched my own.

"In other words, nothing important." I said, walking in and sprawling out on the black leather couch in her office. She glared at me as she barely caught a stack of files that had started to fall off of her desk.

"No. I am NOT working anymore. It is Friday, there is half an hour before I am off the clock and I am going home and relaxing." I laughed.

"Who said anything about work? I'm stuck attending one of those charity gala's and my date canceled." I acted as if it was a severe loss, when in actuality I didn't care. The only reason why I brought anyone along was because it was always better to be bored to death with company than bored to death alone. And that I could use her as an excuse to leave early.

"So you're asking me?" She asked and I nodded.

"Yeah." She met my gaze and I prayed that she'd agree.

"Why?" I shrugged.

"Because if nothing else, you'll stop me from falling asleep with your commentary on everyone else there." It was always a good thing to have a date with brains, especially a date with brains and a sense of humor.

"Is that all you do at these things?" I nodded.

"Most of us sit there, get drunk, and make snide comments about whoever is out of earshot to those who are in, write off a check, and leave." She laughed, but it was the truth.

"And what does one wear to these things?" This was the harder question. I hardly paid any attention to what the women were wearing, just that most of the ones that attended were trophy wives that would only have two brain cells if they were pregnant.

"I'm sure you have something in your closet, a nice dress or something." She nodded.

"You owe me." She said, and I grinned, getting up. "You do all my paperwork for me for a week." It was a hard bargain, but by all means worth it.

"I'll pick you up at 7." I told her and slid out of her office trying not to show my grin until I reached the parking garage. It was the next best thing to a date.

She was arm candy, and nothing else, or so I tried to convince myself, but I knew it wasn't true. She was arm candy with brains. Arm candy that I had lusted after for a decade, and now this was almost a date. Only it wasn't, this was my asking her to come because my scheduled arm candy really couldn't make it.

I searched through my closet until I pulled out my tux and frowned when I realized that I still hadn't cleaned it from the last one. But it still looked good, it wasn't freshly starched and was a little worn, but it still looked good. I hate the tux almost as I hated these charity things. The last one I had gone to had been with Renee and she was constantly trying to fix this and that with my appearance.

Jordan, if nothing else, would at least be interesting. I had already said that her commentary on the others there would be entertaining. She has a dry, sarcastic sense of humor that rivals my own, it's something I try to find in other women, but sarcasm requires intelligence, and it's rare to find a beautiful, intelligent woman who would agree to go to one of these things that wasn't obsessed with trying to hobnob with the upper crust.

I pulled to a stop in front of her building and headed up the stairs to the familiar fire-engine red door, giving it three sharp raps. She stuck her head out and grinned. "Hang on one second." She said and the door closed before reopening again, and she stood there in an absolutely gorgeous red dress. "Come on in." She told me as I fought to keep my jaw from hitting the floor.

Why had she never worn this before? She looked absolutely stunning in it, it hugged her figure with ease, and there was a long slit up the side that teased without coming close to the line of "slut." I walked in and sat down, still trying to get my brain to function as she went back to the mirror to put the finishing touches on her hair and makeup.

She was always beautiful, but this was something else entirely. This was her looking absolutely splendid. "So, how do I look?" She asked as she double checked her appearance one last time and grabbed a matching clutch bag off of the small table by the door.

"Wonderful." I told her as she clutched onto my outstretched arm, and we walked down her stairs and back into my car.

"So." She said as I drove downtown.

"So." I repeated.

"What's the cause du jour?" I laughed at her way of putting things.

"Some program that encourages music and arts in schools." She nodded approvingly.

"Sounds pretty worthy." It was a worthy cause. I couldn't avoid these things entirely, so the ones that I did attend were the ones that were for a cause that I could believe in. I pulled to a stop and helped her out of the car, tossed the keys to the valet and led her in.

I went to grab us each a glass of wine and she stood off to the side, trying not to make herself noticeable, and I didn't blame her. Whatever people did recognize her were probably ones whose toes she had stepped on. Most of the people there were hugging the wall, none of them wanting to venture out and dance to the horrible lounge singer, and each one looking like they wanted to leave as soon as possible.

Hopefully the keynote speaker would come out, do his speech and walk off quickly, allowing all of us to leave hopefully within an hour and a half. As I came back and handed her a glass she looked around with her eyes slightly narrowed. "I can't believe someone would actually call up and cancel coming to this." Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Apparently Brigit wasn't entirely lacking in intelligence." She laughed. I didn't blame the woman in the least, I hardly knew her, she was a friend of a friend who was intelligent enough to not really care about these things. She was someone I could hold a half decent conversation with for two hours, most of that being about inane things, but it was still better than being stuck with some of the women that these men brought with them.

Jordan looked around and I recognized the look on her face as one that I prayed wouldn't cross it. "Jordan, whatever it is you're thinking, stop it now." I told her and she grinned. The look on her face said that she had her claws out and was ready to pounce, sinking her fangs into someone that she disliked.

"Well, you're lucky I can't decide who to go after, my ex or Walcott." I fought not to spit out the sip of wine I had just taken. Renee was the last person I wanted to see here. Especially with Jordan. It was bad enough that Renee always was on guard when I was around Jordan, not that I blamed her, her instincts had been dead on, but I really did not want to have to put up with the small talk that came with seeing her. We were over, done with, better to make it a clean break and only have to see each other as work called for rather than see each other outside of the office, even if we were both with our respective dates.

"How about going after no one?" I suggested and she laughed.

"Yes boss, I'll be on my best behavior." She gave me a mock salute and I chuckled slightly at that.

"You know I could've asked someone else."

"So why did you ask me?" She raised an eyebrow.

I immediately cursed myself for that comment. I didn't want to tell her the real reason why. I didn't want to tell her that I had invited her along was because I was hoping to count this as a date, that I was hoping to get something more out of it. Luckily I was spared from telling her as some young guy appeared out of nowhere.

"Garret!" He exclaimed, clapping me on my shoulder as I tried to remember who he was.

"Hi." I said simply.

"Who's this?" He asked, giving Jordan a very obvious look over. I was half tempted to growl and bare my teeth and tell him to back off.

"This," I said, gesturing to Jordan, "Is Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh." I fought to remember who the man before me was, "Jordan, this is-"

I was lucky that he spared me the embarrassment of not remembering his name as he cut me off. "Tommy Headon. How do you do." She rolled her eyes as he bent down to kiss her hand and I fought a smirk that was quickly wiped off my face as I saw Renee heading in my direction.

"Hello Garret." She said, standing in front of me.

"Renee." I acknowledged.

"So how are you?" I said, trying not to show any emotion whatsoever, because I honestly didn't know what to feel. I had thought we had a relationship, but she was always so mistrusting. She could sense that she wasn't the only one in my heart. She could tell that I still had the baggage of too many failed relationships and the love for another woman to carry around, and had run back to her ex.

"Doing good., yourself?" I shrugged.

"Same old." I said.

"Garret, how do you do this?" Jordan whispered at me through clenched teeth as Mr. Headon disappeared back into the crowd. It was then she noticed Renee. "Walcott." She acknowledged and a look of almost venom passed between them. They may put aside their differences when it came to work, but the two of them hated each other on a personal level.

"Dr. Cavanaugh." Renee all but spat as a man came over with two glasses. "Thank you Eddy." She said, taking one from him. "Garret, Dr. Cavanaugh, this is Eddy."

I met the tall man's eyes and I could see pure alpha male written all over him. He considered Renee a possession, and I got the hint quite clearly. She was gone for good.

"I'll see you around, Garret." She said, and walked off with Eddy, arm in arm.

"Yet another reminder of why I don't like her." Jordan said as I downed the rest of my wine and ordered a scotch. I downed it in two gulps and half of the next before slowing down a bit. "You OK?" She asked me and I nodded.

"Wonderful." She laughed.

"Go easy on the scotch there or it's not me you're going to have to worry about giving you a bad name." I grinned.

"I'm a very coherent drunk. Provided I'm standing in one spot you don't know I'm drunk." It was the truth. I could carry on an entire conversation while drunk and no one would be any the wiser. I just couldn't walk when drunk. I downed the rest of my scotch and ordered my third.

"Right." She said, moving closer to me as the speaker came out for the start of his forty-five minute speech. The only thing I could think of was how close she was to me, her presence, and the next two scotches I downed in that time period. She felt so comfortable against me, one arm casually wrapped around her.

She felt like she belonged there, and I had to fight the urge to take her into my arms and kiss the life out of her, tell her that I loved her. She looked at me with a look of pure boredom on her face about twenty minutes into the speech. "This is the reason for the booze." I whispered into her ear and she fought back laughter. I could feel it kicking in, but I didn't care.

As soon as the speaker was done I whipped out my checkbook, scrawled out a donation of the appropriate amount and headed for the door. She laughed as I walked. "You were right about the don't move well when you're drunk part." She teased and I knew that I probably was quite wobbly.

"What can I say, it makes those things bearable." The valet returned with my car and she climbed into the driver seat. "So, did you enjoy it?" I asked and she grinned.

"Remind me to make that a month's worth of paperwork next time I agree to it." She said. "Better yet, I'll bring a month's worth of paperwork, it's more interesting than this was." I laughed at her comment, knowing it was far too true.

"But you'd still go to another one?" I asked and she shrugged.

"Depends. Would you actually do a month's of my paperwork for me to go?"

"Anything. A date with you is better than a date with an empty headed bimbo any day." She smiled, and I hoped I hadn't said what I thought I just said. I hoped I had said a date like you, a date like her, someone similar. That she wouldn't misconstrue it the way that I had really meant it.

"I'll hold you to that then. Next time you drag me to one of these you are doing a month's worth of my paperwork." I grinned, it meant that she would consider coming back to another one of these.

"Deal." I said as she pulled to a stop in front of my house and aided me to my bedroom. I pulled off my jacket and undid the dress shirt and stretched once I had that uncomfortable piece of clothing off, enjoying the way that my skin could breathe with only my dresshirt on, and then undid the cummerbund and kicked off my shoes before stripping down to my boxers.

"Bed." She ordered and I laughed at her, but complied none the less. Once she was sure I wasn't about to die, or puke, or do anything stupid, she walked towards the door. "Night." She said.

"Jordan-" I called after her and she turned around, looking absolutely gorgeous. "Tonight was wonderful. You were wonderful." She grinned at me and flicked off the light as I fell into the deep dreamless sleep of the drunk.


End file.
